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In the lovely city of Madrid, to be exact. That's where he and the rest of Team USA will play tomorrow, against Lithuania. It's their antepenultimate tune-up game before the FIBA world championships officially start next weekend in Turkey. Team USA has an exhibition against Spain on Sunday and then another against Greece on Wednesday in Athens.

Lithuania has an OK squad. Last I checked, they were listed at 40-to-1 to win the tournament, which were the eighth-best odds among the field of 24. In the Beijing Olympics two years ago they finished fourth, which doesn't sound too bad, although they lost by 36 points to the Redeem Team, which admittedly does sound pretty bad. Linas Kleiza, now of the Toronto Raptors, plays for Lithuania, but the guy you should really keep an eye on is Donatas Motiejunas. He's a seven-foot power forward whom many are predicting will be a high-lottery pick in next year's NBA draft.

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Earlier today, the Silver Screen and Roll High Council convened to eat tamales and ruminate on a certain Game Seven being played tonight. It was a feast for the senses as well as the intellect! We read some tea leaves and chicken entrails, we consulted the Vegas line (which favors the Lakers by seven points), we even dusted off an old Parker Brothers Ouija board to seek guidance from the spirit world.

Are you ready to see the future before it happens? If so, gaze at our forecast after the cut. As always, you're encouraged to use our predictions as the basis for life-altering, retirement-postponing, marriage-wrecking monetary wagers. And don't forget to register your vote in our schmancy pregame poll! Do it for democracy.

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Do not try to bend the spoon.  That's impossible.  Instead, try to realize the truth ... There is no spoon.

Most of you will recognize the above quote as coming from The Matrix. I won't delve too deeply into a plot that is too deep, but the point of the quote is that, when faced with the impossible, you should not question the validity of the specific rules that are being broken to create the impossibility. Instead, you should realize there are no rules.

That's the 2010 NBA Finals in a nutshell. There is no valid set of rules that explains the events we've seen so far. There is no spoon.   No matter how this series ends up, the "impossible" has already happened. Phil Jackson is currently 47-0 when his team wins the first game of a playoff series. The past 10 times an NBA Finals has been tied 1-1, the team that has won Game Three has won the series. And yet, the Celtics have never lost a Game Seven in the NBA Finals, having won seven times under those circumstances. A team has won the last two games after facing a 3-2 deficit only twice in the last 25 years. Of course, one of those teams just happened to be the Lakers. Improbable is a better word than impossible to describe these feats, as they are all stats that had to be disproven eventually. But at some point along the roller coaster that has been this series, it has been improbable that either team would win, based upon the analysis and historical data available at the time. Now, one team has to win.

That is what Game Seven means. That is what Lakers-Celtics means. You've been given six games' worth of evidence, and with that evidence, all that you can prove is that nothing about the upcoming game can be proven. Six games, with three wins by either team. Each game won has been accomplished in a different way. Each game lost has involved a new problem to solve. Nothing has been consistent. Few patterns have emerged. Every player has shown the capability to succeed on the highest stage, and fail on the simplest level. 

It is said that a wise man knows that he knows nothing at all. If that's the case, I'm the wisest man in the world when it comes to Game Seven, because I know I don't know shit.

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One way or another, this season's coming to an end soon. By this time tomorrow, we'll know whether the Lakers survived to play a Game Seven. By this time Friday, if not far sooner, we'll know whether their NBA title was successfully defended. I'd love to tell everyone that win or lose, they should enjoy these final moments. Basketball will be out of our lives shortly, and we're lucky to be fans of a team that has played into mid-June. For all the angst and frustration these Finals have visited on Lakerdom, there isn't a team in this or any other sport I'd rather follow or root for.

But let's not kid ourselves. How we remember this season depends hugely on what goes down tonight and, if things break our way, Thursday. This Lakers team was built to win a championship now. It has the highest payroll in the league. It features Kobe Bryant, a hoops immortal, at the height of his powers. Pau Gasol has the talent of an All-World baller and the lavish salary to match. Andrew Bynum is a skilled and burly seven-footer that any team would love to have. So loaded is the roster that Lamar Odom and Ron Artest, who would be featured offensive options on any number of squads, are role players. When you step back and take it all in, it really is an astonishing pile of talent. And that's before you even get to the coach, he of the 10 rings and 12 milly in annual compensayshe.

Why is why anything short of a repeat championship will be difficult to stomach.

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So, what has been the overarching theme of this series so far? Well, there hasn't been one... to do with the players, at least. Every game has had many aspects polar opposite to those in the game prior to it, such as Ray Allen's Jekyll-and-Hyde performances in Games 2 and 3, or Kevin Garnett's performances from Games 1 and 2 compared to Game 3. It's impossible to tell who's going to carry the team in any given game, as both teams possess so much talent that near any player on the roster can drop points, but both teams also play such excellent defense as to prevent most of their opponents from dropping points.

Perhaps the only constant of this series has been the atrocious officiating. Foul trouble for a plethora of players, from both teams. Touch fouls on the perimeter, sometimes not even involving a touch. No flow in the game. The people who have had the most effect throughout the series have not been those donning the Purple and Gold or Green and White, but those wearing the bland grey. The fouls have been roughly equal in their level of horribleness, but even with the consistency they detract from the experience of the Game. Some may argue that the number of fouls is caused by the extremely physical nature of both teams, particularly the Celtics, but even accounting for the extra physicality, games are still called too tight.

However, it is how the refs have been throughout the whole series, and it is unlikely to significantly change, so the NBA Champions will likely  be the team that most adeptly adjusts to this style of officiating, and so far it has been the Lakers.

But I digress, we do have a game on our hands, and even with the impossible nature of trying to predict anything that will occur in this series, the Preview must go on, after the Jump.

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The Lakers have seen this party before. Twice during last year's title run, they split the first two games of a series at Staples Center and had to play Game Three on the road. Twice the Lakers won to retake home-court advantage. In the 2009 conference semifinals, they pounded the Houston Rockets in Game Three, at a time when the Rockets were still at full strength. (Yao Ming played 39 minutes.) And in the 2009 Western Conference Finals, the Lakers recovered from a Game Two home loss at the hands of the Denver Nuggets to win at the Pepsi Center and assume a 2-1 series lead. Though it's no guarantee of a similarly happy outcome, the circumstances of tonight's visit to the home of the Boston Celtics aren't anything new.

The stakes are simple. The Lakers have one goal at the moment - to return the series to Los Angeles - and three opportunities to achieve it. A loss tonight leaves them two opportunities. So if Game Three isn't strictly a "must win," it's very much a "would be nice to win." As the cliché goes, it's hard to beat a team three times in a row, which is at the heart of complaints about the NBA's 2-3-2 Finals format. It's not quite as hard, though, if you spot the home team the first of those three victories. Win or lose tonight, there'll be plenty of basketball still to be played, but a loss means the temperature up in here is going to start rising, quickly.

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Forgive me for my mistake, but it's a reasonable mistake to make, considering that some, particularly over at CelticsBlog, are referring to this game as an effective Game 7. But, what's intriguing, is that there are legitimate points to reinforce that contention as viable. Firstly, with the 2-3-2 home/away format of the NBA Finals, considering how difficult it is for the home team in Games 3-through-5 to win three in a row, if they don't steal a game within the first two, the series is generally over in 5 or 6. Secondly, with the manner in which Boston lost Game One, unless they can put on a dominating performance tonight, many will start writing them off (unfairly, most likely).

And third, rest assured the Celtics know about points one and two, and therefore they will definitely try to come out and play as if it's a Game 7. If the Lakers can beat them while they are doing so, the series is in Los Angeles' hands - unless the Lakers let up after that, they can't lose. Some may contend that playing at home would energise them further, but Boston has been a better road than home team all through the season; the only component of playing at home that would aid them would be friendly whistles and a high free-throw differential, which the Lakers have been playing through all season, particularly in the Playoffs (even in Game One, Boston had more free throws than us, on our home floor).

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Game One tips off in exactly three hours, 15 minutes. 195 minutes until what may end up being the defining series of any and every member of this Los Angeles Lakers squad's career. Kobe's legacy, Pau's redemption, Ron's title, et cetera et cetera. We've been through all this. We know the importance of this series, and there is no doubt the players do as well. Game One will present an opportunity for both teams to strike the first blow. With the way both these teams have played up-and-down (see their respective conference finals series for a perfect example), winning Game One, even in a blowout, is far from any guarantee of a title, but it still serves as an indicator of who's more prepared out of the gate.

We've been over the stats. We've been over the matchups. But, particularly with two teams such as these, they really do mean next to nothing. Toughness, will, determination, clutch. Traits often referred to as 'intangible', though their results are generally very, brutally tangible. Those are what will decide the series. Their results may be tangible, but they are inestimatable until after the fact, and even then their true effect is often immeasurable. Trying to predict this series truly is a fools' endeavour, as one can never tell what to expect from either of these teams on a night-in, night-out basis.

Both teams will put in the work, put in the effort. But both teams are filled with players that possess a propensity to randomly alternate between slumps and hot streaks, players suffering from injuries ranging from niggling to serious, core players who are downright streaky, and role players who have the potential to light on fire and ignite a team to swing momentum. It kills me to quote Kevin Garnett, but anything is possible.

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